Local Polls: Smaller Opposition Parties Form the ‘Third Force’

Giorgi Vashadze of the Strategy Agmashenebeli announced today the creation of the Third Force, a political platform to run in October 2 elections for local self-government bodies.

Grigol Vashadze, ex-Foreign Minister and former chair of the United National Movement, Tamar Kekenadze of the Free Democrats party, Khatuna Samnidze of the Republican party, among others, joined the political platform.

Addressing the attendants of the online presentation, Giorgi Vashadze said the Third Force will aim to “defeat” political polarization on October 2.

The Third Force is a mechanism to end confrontation and a bipolar political system where the ruling Georgian Dream and the opposition United National Movement parties dominate the scene, Giorgi Vashadze asserted.

On his part, Grigol Vashadze, who resigned unexpectedly from UNM chairmanship in December 2020, said for Georgia to move forward it Georgia should ensure “zero surprises in foreign policy,” economic development and “shifting all of the attention” towards women and children to avoid “demographic catastrophe.”

Noting that Georgia is surrounded by armed conflicts in both, its immediate neighborhood and wider region, including Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict, wars in Ukraine, Syria and Afghanistan that will spell trouble for the country, the Former Foreign Minister said Georgia should show “absolutely different political image and political discourse” than it has today not to risk being abandoned by the allies from the West.

“If we fail to do this, we will be left alone, and you perfectly understand who will win with it” Grigol Vashadze went on presumably meaning Russia, adding that “one political team is left in the past (meaning the Georgian Dream – ed.), while the second political team (meaning the UNM – ed.) fails to learn from its past mistakes.”

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